The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is sending out warnings to consumers about an uptick in vishing following the recent data breach of one of the three major credit bureaus, Equifax. Vishing is a form of phishing, where the scammers place a phone call to a potential victim requesting sensitive or personal data. The warning emphasizes that any calls from anyone claiming to be from Equifax are fraudulent.

The agency also is providing additional tips to help consumers after the breach that allowed cybercriminals to access names, address, social security numbers, birth dates, and some credit card numbers of about 44% of the U.S. consumer population.

Don’t trust the caller ID that appears on the phone display. Scammers can easily spoof, or imitate actual numbers on those displays to make you think it’s from a legitimate caller.

Hang up on robocalls without pressing numbers or saying anything. Don’t worry. A robot won’t be offended.

Consider freezing your credit. This is reasonable if you don’t need to provide access to your reports to anyone. However, it doesn’t prevent you from temporarily unfreezing when you do apply for credit or fill out an application for housing, for example.

Monitor all payment card charges. Since credit reports include card numbers for your accounts, it’s possible these thieves have them all. So, check statements regularly and report anything that looks unfamiliar to the card issuer immediately.

Check your credit reports on a regular basis. You can get them at the annualcreditreport.com website at no charge. Get one every four months to stay on top of them.

File your income taxes early. The earlier you can do this, the less likely someone can do it first and get your tax return. So far, the IRS does not have any sort of protection mechanism in place for this. It’s up to you to take the first steps.

Remember that the more information criminals have about you, the easier it is to not only trick you via the telephone and steal from you, but they can also craft very realistic phishing email messages and texts too. So be on the lookout for those as well. It’s up to each one of us to be proactive about protecting our finances and our identities.

After a major data breach, many people consider freezing their credit reports. It’s not a bad idea, if you don’t need access to it right away. It can give you peace of mind if someone does get ahold of your social security number or other information that can lead to identity theft. Social Security numbers cannot be replaced like a credit card number. Credit cards can be replaced and in your hands in a few days, but your SSN is with you for life. It can take years and cost untold thousands to clean up the mess. Tragically, this can happen over and over in your life.

Freezing your credit is the best way to prevent new accounts from being opened with your SSN but it does not protect existing bank accounts or credit cards. This is where credit monitoring services step in. They watch over your SSN and current accounts and notify you about new activity.

What is a Credit Freeze? A credit freeze will prevent anyone from viewing your credit file and reports or opening credit in your name. When you apply for a credit card, a loan, or even living quarters, you are evaluated based on your credit file. The freeze prevents it from being released from the major credit bureaus.

Activating a Freeze: You must contact each of the bureaus independently to add a freeze. Visit their websites to do this or contact them by telephone at the numbers they list on their websites. Some states allow them to charge a fee to do this, but it is usually worth it.

Information You Will Need: To place a freeze, the bureaus will ask for some information:

Your name

Your Social Security number

Your birthdate

Your current address

Your former address

A payment card (in some cases)

A PIN that you choose to lift or reapply a freeze

Freezing and Unfreezing Your Credit File: You can still get access to your file after a freeze is put on it. You just have to contact the bureaus to do so. Check with them as to lead-time for temporarily unfreezing and refreezing and if there are any fees associated with doing so. Just be aware that this process may delay any approvals for credit. Each company has three days to lift your freeze once they receive your request.

How Long Does a Credit Freeze Last? A freeze will stay on your reports until you lift them.

Can an Attacker Unfreeze My File If He or She Has My Information? No one can freeze or unfreeze your file unless he or she also has your PIN associated with the freeze.

Remember that credit monitoring and identity theft recovery services do not prevent fraud. They will alert you if someone tries to access your credit or if something looks amiss, or assist you to repair your identity in the case of identity theft. These services will not monitor your payment card purchases either. You will need to monitor your charges separately.

Also, within the days after the Equifax breach, all three bureaus were reporting such high demand for credit freezes that it was rumored they were asking for people to send their requests via U.S. Mail.

Contact Information for Major Credit Bureaus to place a freeze or to unfreeze:

By now, most of us have heard of the recent data breach at the credit bureau, Equifax. If not, there is a good chance you will be receiving a letter from them letting you know that your social security number and other information was accessed by an unauthorized party. That’s because this event affected 44% of the U.S. population. There are a few items to consider as a follow up to the initial stories on this topic and that is what the following information covers.

There was some controversy about signing up for the offered free credit monitoring and other identity protection services from Equifax. So you might be a bit skeptical of taking them up on it after this, but it’s certainly worth consideration. However, be sure to read the fine print for any service you sign up for, no matter what the service is doing. In this case, there was initially some detail that required those who chose to use the service, called TrustedID Premier to pay for the service automatically once the free term expired. However, that clause has since been removed from Equifax’s terms of service with respect to this breach. So, you can sign up and take advantage for free; but still read the terms of service thoroughly and don’t expect this to completely protect you from identity theft.

If you are still hearing that signing up for the credit monitoring service will exempt you from any class action lawsuit that may arise, that has changed. Equifax has removed that language from its Terms and Conditions, so you can now take advantage of the service without worry.

Consider the options if your social security number was accessed by unauthorized parties for any event; not just this one. Credit monitoring services do notprevent your identity from being stolen. They will alert you if someone tries to obtain credit with your information. Essentially, it gives you a heads up right away so you can take action to remedy before it gets worse. Identity theft protection services, which were also offered, will help you through the process of correcting any fraud, but again won’t prevent it from happening.

On the other hand, consider a credit freeze, which will prevent credit from being taken out in your name. It blocks any attempt to access credit and the credit bureaus will alert you if someone tries. A credit freeze is recommended to those who have had their social security numbers stolen and who are not applying for credit in the near term. That is because a freeze will do just that; freeze access to your credit so no one can access your report.

That said, if a time occurs where you will need to provide access to your credit for some reason, a credit freeze can be lifted and re-implemented if needed. Just make sure to check the fine print to find out how much lead time is needed to do this and if additional costs are involved. In some states, there is a cost associated with freezing credit.

An important detail about taking advantage of any credit monitoring service is that if there already is a freeze on your credit, the credit monitoring services will not work. This is because they need to access your credit reports in order to monitor activity. However, don’t unfreeze it just to sign up for a service. If the third party cannot access your file because it’s frozen, then the credit freeze is doing what it is intended to do.

Something that often gets overlooked is monitoring the credit of children. In theory, children under 18 should not have a credit report, because they are not consumers. Per a 2012 study by the Identity Theft Assistance Center and the Javelin Strategy & Research group, one in 40 families with children under 18 had at least one child whose information was accessed in an unauthorized manner. If you find a report for your child on file with Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion, investigate it and the possibility of fraud using the child’s information.

Also remember that this applies to anyone who has used a social security number to get credit of any type or even to turn on utilities. This breach or any breach that includes stolen social security numbers is not limited to U.S. citizens. Anyone with a social security number can be a victim of identity theft.

If you get news headlines on your mobile device, you may have seen one pop up yesterday regarding a major breach at the credit-reporting agency, Equifax. Yes, it’s difficult to swallow finding out that one of the agencies that stores so much information on consumers and is supposed to keep our credit information safe, has let down its guard. It seems that is indeed the case, as a consumer notice on a website created specifically for this incident details.

The website allows consumers to enter the last six digits of their social security numbers and last names to find out if indeed they are affected by this. However, considering the breach includes details on nearly half the population of the United States at 143 million, the chances of any given person being included are reasonably high. Putting it into perspective, that’s just about the same number as the entire population of Russia, according to the CIA’s World Fact Book.

If you do find out that you have been affected, either by checking on the website or after receiving a letter in the mail from Equifax, there are a few actions you can, and should take to be proactive about protecting your identity. Bear with us. It’s lengthy, but considering the significance of the information stolen, it’s necessary.

If you have an account with Equifax, change the password for it immediately. It wasn’t disclosed as being part of this breach, but it’s always a good idea to do this after any breach. When doing so, be sure it is unique and not used on any other site. Hackers often try to reuse password and user name combinations on other sites once they have them.

Next, while in the account settings changing your password, enable two-factor authentication (2FA) if you haven’t already. This will prevent anyone with malicious intent from requesting a password reset just using your email address and will keep them from getting into your account using just your password. If this option is available on any site, take advantage of it, even if the account doesn’t store sensitive information. People often think sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram don’t require use of 2FA because payment card details or social security numbers aren’t stored with them. However, those sites have so much information about users that they are extremely important to secure.

Be sure to monitor credit reports regularly. Keeping an eye on these should be normal practice. They are available from each of the three bureaus for no charge one time per year. Everyone with credit should be checking them for suspicious activity throughout the year.

Credit card information of approximately 209,000 people was also included in the stolen data. Be sure to monitor payment card statements diligently and report potential fraudulent charges to the card issuer right away.

Be on the lookout for phishing emails that attempt to get you to click links or open attachments claiming they are somehow related to this incident. Often, these phishing campaigns ramp up to take advantage of news like this. If your information was included in this breach, don’t rely on an email to tell you. Check the website or wait to see if you receive a paper letter in the U.S. Mail from Equifax. In this case, assume any email messages you get claiming to be related to or supporting this Equifax breach in any way are phishing. Confirm legitimacy of links and attachments in some manner other than by using information provided in the email messages. Often, scammers will put phone numbers and email addresses in them, hoping you will respond using those. They actually staff locations to handle communication initiated from that information. Be wary of any messages, email, text, or chat that claim to provide a service for you as a victim of this incident.

Equifax is offering a lot of services free of charge to victims. They include credit report monitoring with all three bureaus, copies of Equifax credit reports, identity theft insurance, scanning the Internet for social security numbers, and the ability to lock and unlock Equifax credit reports. This is all offered through their own services, which might make some go “hmmm,” but take advantage anyway. They already have your information, so let them monitor it and alert you if something comes up.

They’re with us most, if not all the time. The attachment to our smart phones has its perks, but it also leads to fraudsters finding ways to abuse it. Pesky robocalls and bothersome texts are growing in alarming numbers, leaving many users victims to their scams. It’s not just that they’re annoying, but many robocalls and texts are coming from sources with criminal intent. The reason they continue to grow is that the scams are working, so the scammers are working overtime to find new ways to invade our privacy.

A recent survey by First Orion, a telecom service company, reveals an 85% surge in telemarketer calls from 2015. Some calls are legitimate, but the overwhelming amount of them are not. There seems there’s no end to what thieves are willing to do to trick you for your personal and financial information. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reports scammers claiming to be IRS agents have bilked unsuspecting Americans out of $54 million since 2013. Many scams also prey on fears, telling you there are outstanding fines and fees you must pay to keep your home, car, insurance, and other necessities.

For some time now, the FTC has been combatting these issues and is always looking for new ways to help protect consumers. One visit to the FTC Scam Alert web page exposes the many incredulous ways scammers invade your privacy. The list continues to grow as fraudsters persevere, finding new ways to get your sensitive information. The good news is there are effective ways to fight back. Although not always 100% sales and scam-proof, they can put a serious dent into the alarming rate of these calls and texts. It’s always a good idea to pass these steps on to friends and loved ones.

Approach with caution when taking calls from unknown numbers, or simply do not answer them.

Add your number to the Do Not Call list. After your phone number is added, it takes just over 30 days for the calls to begin stopping.

Report unwanted texts to your cell phone service provider and to the FTC. Reporting information can be found at the FTC website.

Never provide confidential information to an unknown caller or text. Legitimate sources rarely ask for such information by phone or text. Hang up and contact whom the caller claims to be associated with. Let the entity know you’ve been contacted. They should be able to tell you if this person or practice is legitimate.

Don’t fall for being told you’ve won a contest, prize, or services. Most scammers insist you must pay or purchase a gift card (giving them the card numbers) or fork over shipping and handling to get what you’ve won. Ask yourself why something that’s free should cost something. A little common sense goes a long way.

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Chances are pretty good that you have heard the term business email compromise or BEC by now. It is a type of wire transfer fraud that the FBI has deemed one of the most prevalent types of scam going around these days. In 2017, there were over 15,690 complaints that resulted in total adjusted losses of more than $675 million. That is an 87% increase over 2016 and it is expected to continue to rise. The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) reported that of the fraud related complaints reported in 2017, the most common type was wire transfer fraud.

Chances are pretty good that you have heard the term business email compromise or BEC by now. It is a type of wire transfer fraud that the FBI has deemed one of the most prevalent types of scam going around these days. In 2017, there were over 15,690 complaints that resulted in total adjusted losses of more than $675 million. That is an 87% increase over 2016 and it is expected to continue to rise. The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) reported that of the fraud related complaints reported in 2017, the most common type was wire transfer fraud.

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